Spain most popular destination as summer holidays begin

Follow the author of this article

The most popular destination for Britons this summer is Spain, including Majorca and Tenerife.

Other Mediterranean destinations proving popular, according to Abta, the travel association, are Greece, Turkey and Tunisia.

There has also been an increase in bookings for “staycations” – holidays within the UK – recently, thanks to the prolonged heatwave that has hit the country, according to Abta.

The Channel Islands, the Lake District and the traditional seaside resorts of Blackpool, Brighton and Bournemouth have all benefited from a boost in visitor numbers.

Airports in the South East are expected to be extremely busy if figures from this time last year are anything to go by, with 480,000 passengers departing from Heathrow, 276,000 from Gatwick, 125,000 from Stansted and 70,000 from Luton.

Eurostar is also reporting a rise in passenger numbers on last year, with 70,000 passengers leaving for Paris and the south of France this weekend.

A recent survey has identified the cheapest destinations for a holiday this summer based on average hotel rates for July and August in 1,000 resorts.

Patong Beach, near Phuket in Thailand, was named the cheapest, by hotel comparison Trivago, with room rates averaging £33 a night. The top five most affordable resorts in the list also included Kefalos (in Kos), Varna (Bulgaria) and Las Palmas (Gran Canaria).

The most expensive resorts, according to the survey, were Bora Bora in French Polynesia (£497 a night), Porto Cervo in Sardinia (£417) and Pula (£377), also in Sardinia.